“My Sins Are Gone” Part One

Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 911 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Phil Enlow: Praise the Lord! I appreciate the Lord’s presence this morning. I believe He’s reaching out to us. You know, He’s calling us to reach out to Him, but where does that impulse, where does that desire come from, except from Him? He always takes the initiative with us, because we would never do it apart from Him. I appreciate Him this morning.

You know, I…this is one morning where more than most, I would be very happy just to sit there and let someone else minister. I feel the need to be ministered to and I appreciate so much the men’s meeting this morning. I came in kind of dry and it was a great blessing to hear one after another, after another, after another just give expression to the hunger and the need and the desire for the Lord. And it’s just…God is doing something in hearts.

And a lot of times when you plant a crop, you don’t see anything for a while, do you? But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing happening. There’s a lot of things happening underneath the surface and I believe that’s what’s going on in many lives. And I…I don’t know, based on the service and what’s been said, you could think of so many things. You know, my mind went to scriptures like, “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion…” (KJV). And the need for us to be stirred and to reach out to the Lord and…but I don’t know, my mind went back to something a whole lot more basic and it’s in Hebrews chapter 10.

I was reading last night and some of this kind of jumped out at me fresh. You know, one of the things that is an issue, I think, with many of us is that when we see our need, it’s easy to focus on the need and be swallowed up with that aspect of things, when God wants us to get beyond that. God can’t work in our lives unless He shows us that we need Him. That’s the starting point. But when He shows us that we need Him, it’s not so that we will be consumed with the sense of need. It’s so that we will be able to come to Him as the only One who can meet that need.

And there are many things that are a barrier to that and one of them, I believe with all my heart that one of the biggest things is guilt. I know that the devil is a master at piling upon us a sense of our guilt. Yes, we’ve done wrong. Yes, we are all the things that God shows us that we are and we feel, oh, I can’t come. Oh there’s this terrible barrier between me and God and I just…if I could just feel that He would love me and accept me…you know we have to get past some of that many times.

And so the thing that we need to begin to see when God shows us our need, is not the need, it’s Christ. Always the center of our message is not what’s wrong with us and what we’ve got to do to fix it, it’s what Christ has done on our behalf that is the center and the heart, because if all He did was show me my need and say, okay fix it – well, that’s curtains…that’s all there is to it, there’s no hope.

But anyway, as we’ve said many times, the Book of Hebrews was written to people who had grown up knowing the Law of Moses and knowing something about the sacrificial system. But the writer wanted them to know that God have moved beyond that…that that was only a temporary institution to show people their need and to teach them about the coming Savior.

And so that’s where he begins in chapter 10, by saying, “The law…” (NIV). Now this is the Law of Moses…this is the law that God instituted. God did this. It was not something that they came up with and then God said, all right we’re doing away with that. This was something God deliberately instituted. He said, “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves.”

Now think of the imagery he’s talking about. Here’s the cross, let’s say. Right here is the cross. This is what God was really aiming at all along. This was God’s real provision for everything. But here’s a brilliant light that is shining from over here, and it casts a shadow back over here. And it’s like back into history there was a shadow cast, and that shadow was…the reflection of the cross was in the sacrificial system, where in order to deal with sin, they literally had to come and offer a blood sacrifice. It represented the giving of a life, because the penalty for sin is, what?

( congregational response ).

Death, isn’t it? And we all deserve that, but God had made a way where there could be another life offered. It was a repentant sinner coming and saying, God, I’m guilty, but I come because of Your promise…and that You have promised that if I will offer this sacrifice that You have prescribed that You will forgive my sins. And so that’s all they had to go on and among them there was a remnant of people who had a real faith toward God and they honored Him and they did what He said, but the point was, this is not what God was after. And as we pointed out recently, what happened when Jesus was on the cross, and He cried, it is finished and gave up the ghost and He died? What happened?

( congregational response ).

There was a large curtain in the temple and behind that curtain was the holiest place, the holy of holies. This was a place where nobody went. Nobody could go in there and live. God’s presence was there and a sinner did not go into that place. It was meant to teach the people the holiness of God, that He is completely “other” than we are. He is completely above us. There is a purity to Him that is beyond imagining, and that we cannot even imagine…I mean just the very thought of going in there was just death. It was…oh, this is a holy God. And what happened was the priest, the high priest once a year on the Day of Atonement would literally take an offering that was carefully prescribed and he would carry that behind that curtain and offer it to God and God would accept it for the sins of the people.

But even that was only a temporary thing and the witness of God was that when Jesus cried, “It is finished,” that curtain was torn down. That meant that every one of us in spite of our need, the depth of our need, we have access to God! This God that we need to seek, this God that we need to draw near to, wants us to draw near, even though He is a holy God, He has made a way where we can come with perfect freedom into the very holy of holies. No more barrier. Praise God!

So anyway he says, “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves. For this reason it...” the law “…can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.” Well you know that’s great. You go to the temple and there’s a Day of Atonement. The priest takes the blood in and God forgives your sins. Then you go out, and what happens?

( congregational inaudible ).

You sin some more. We come short…we continually fall short of God’s glory. And so you come to the end of the next year and what do they have to do? They have to go back and do it again, don’t they?

( congregational response ).

All over again…and the next year, it’s the same, and the next year, it’s the same, and on and on and on…it never does the job. It never finished the job. You’re always left with…well, I’m gonna need another sacrifice, I’m gonna need something else. It just hasn’t really taken away the need.

Now he says, “If it could…” make them complete or perfect. “If it could, would they not have stopped being offered?” If there was a sacrifice under the Old Covenant that could have done the job, why did they keep doing it? That’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?

Now listen to this. This is an amazing thing. “For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all…” And listen to this part. “…And would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.” Now just ponder that for a minute. You know, a lot times I think we come to God and we cling to the guiltiness that we feel for having sinned, for having come short. But the covenant that God has established through Jesus Christ, if it’s truly entered into is supposed to take away that sense of guilt!

Now I’m sure there’s plenty of people here who could testify that when God first convicted you of your need of a Savior, you felt that guilt, didn’t you? Oh, it just almost consumed you. Oh my God, He’s holy and I’m not and I have no answer. There’s nothing that I can do. Oh God, help me! And you felt the weight of your sins there…guilt was there. But what happened when God enabled you to believe and to see the cross and to see what Jesus did and to see that it was once for all, what happened?

( congregation inaudible ).

What happened to that guilt? It was gone! There’s a sense of freedom that comes to a heart. That’s a pretty good measure of real faith. There is so much that is called Christian in our land, particularly today, but in the world, and it never brings people to that point. God wants to bring people to a place where there is no more guilt. It’s not ‘no more guilt’ because we don’t care and just go on sinning, and our consciences are seared. That’s not what he’s talking about. He’s talking about having a heart that is sensitive, but yet we know that Jesus paid it all, and it was done once and He doesn’t have to go back and do it again, because we mess up. There is a place where we can come where we have no guilt.

( congregational amens ).

I need that place, don’t you?

( congregational amens ).

I’m tired of the devil, who is called the accuser of the brethren beating up on me and beating up on you. Sometimes I see it in your eyes. I know the enemy’s talking. I know he’s beating you up. God’s working in your heart and you’re seeing things that are wrong and it causes to you feel the weight of that as though…oh my God, I’m bearing this. Don’t you know that Jesus bore it? Once--once! The worshipers would, in a proper offering, in the offering that would really do the job, “…the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all.”

Cleansed! I need to be clean, if I’m gonna [go] before a holy God and have any sense that He loves me and wants me to fellowship with Him. Isn’t that an incredible thing? That a holy God would actually want to draw near to us! Praise God! Praise God, this isn’t a reluctant God and we’re trying to somehow get on His good side. This is a God who has come after us when we were yet sinners!

( congregational amens ).

When we were guilty, when we were running, when we were fighting, when we were doing everything in the world to thwart His love, He reached us anyway. Oh, I’m so glad that His answer is a ‘once for all’ kind of thing. Praise God!

“But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” See they were only stand-ins. They didn’t really have any power in themselves. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: Sacrifice and offering you did not desire…” He said that’s not what You were really after, God. “…But a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, Here I am--it is written about me in the scroll--I have come to do your will, O God.”

Praise God for the Spirit that caused Him to give up everything for us who were sinners who hated Him and He gave it all up…all of heaven, not just a cushy life on earth! He gave up heaven itself to come down and walk in our shoes and take our sins upon Himself and go to the cross as the guilty One. All that guilt you feel, don’t you know He bore that?

I remember growing up years ago. You know…I don’t know where this came from, whether it was my father or my mother, but one or the other of them…I know I’ve seen my father use this simple illustration. Here’s you with you sin and your guilt, but Jesus said, I have come to take that. Well, where does that leave you? See, a child could understand that. That leaves us in a place where we can be free to walk with a holy God.

And don’t you know that there is nothing that you and I can do religiously speaking or whatever we do. We could come here and have the perfect service…all the t’s crossed and all the i’s dotted. We could everything right from an external standpoint and it would be absolutely dead if we didn’t have the living presence of God in our midst. Because we are nothing, we are absolutely nothing without Him. I mean, if Jesus the Son of God walking on this earth could do nothing by Himself, why should we think we could? We can’t. We need Him. But I praise Him today, that He has made that way where I can be free! Are you free this morning?

( congregational response ).

That’s the question. Are you free? Because He has made a perfect provision for you to be free. You don’t have to be in bondage to the sins that have gripped your life! You don’t have to be in bondage to its power, to its guilt. It will drive you insane if you let it. But God…do you really understand what Jesus did for you? It’s got to become personal with you that Jesus paid it all.

( congregational amens ).

He said, “I have come to do your will, O God.” That’s a real…key right there. We’ll get to something in just a second. “First he said, Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them (although the law required them to be made). Then he said, Here I am, I have come to do your will.”

So now he’s going to explain the reason for Him saying it that way. He says, “He sets aside the first to establish the second.” He sets the Law aside to establish the Truth of the Gospel. So that other’s done away. It doesn’t exist anymore. Nobody can come to God on that basis anymore. There’s only one way. It’s Jesus. It says, “And by that will…” Now what will is that?

( congregational response ).

What will is that? He’s just told you up above. I’ve come to do Your will. This is God’s plan from the foundation of the world. This is not God sitting there, folding His hands and saying, boy, they’ve messed up. I’m ready to…whomp ‘em, destroy ‘em. And then the Son says, oh Father, please don’t do that. No! This is God’s plan!

( congregational amens ).

This is one in which the Father and the Son were totally of one heart and one mind to reach out to you and to me in our need, and our sin and our guilt, and take it away so that we can be free. Praise God! I need to be free, don’t you? A lot freer than I am. Well, I can never be free as long as I’m focused on all that’s wrong with me. But I can be free if I can look to Him, if He could be lifted because He’s the answer to everything that’s wrong with me. And everything is wrong with me, but everything’s right with Him. Praise God! “By that will we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ…” How often?

( congregational response ).

“…Once for all.” You mean, if I sin tomorrow, what happens? If I come short tomorrow what happens? Does He have to go back and do it again. No! It takes care of it! Does that mean I’m gonna just live a careless life? No! If you’ve got that kind of a spirit, you need to be saved!

( congregational amens ).

You have never been given the new heart and the new spirit that he has promised. I’ll tell you those He touches, those He saves have a new spirit on the inside that wants to do right. Yes, we struggle with this flesh many times. We all do. But I’ll tell you what, we don’t have to be afraid. In the growing process, in the process, many times of stumbling and learning, growing, we come short, but oh my God, we always can point back to one sacrifice! We don’t have to wait for the Day of Atonement to come, so okay the priest can now take the blood in there, and take care of it again.

( sighing ).

Then we breathe a sigh of relief. All right we’re good now…good to go for another year. No! Once for all!

( congregational amens ).

That means all of those that were looking forward to the cross and just doing what they knew to do, that ‘once for all’ was for them, too. That’s once for all time! That’s once for all of those that God will ever save and has ever saved. One sacrifice took care of it all. But do you see that this morning? I mean is that real to your heart? I pray…I can’t make it real with my power to speak. I don’t have any. But I’ll tell you, I pray that the God who is here this morning will take this simple truth and will so grip your soul with it, you will see it and I will see it as we have never seen it before, He died for you once for all! We can be free! He took all of my sin, all of my guilt…from cradle to the grave!

( congregational praise ).

It’s gone! I can be free to love Him. Yes, if I’m conscious of something that I do wrong, I can come to Him and say, oh Father, forgive me. I sinned. I messed up. But I know that what you did back there is still at work. The blood will never lose its power.

( congregational amens ).

It’ll never run out. You’ll never out-sin it. If you love Him, you won’t want to. There’ll be something different there. Oh, praise God!

So he says, “By that will, we have been made holy….” There’s a past tense. There’s a completion to that work. We have been set apart for God. That’s a past action that has a present reality to it. That’s the sense of the Greek right there. We have been made holy. What does holy mean? It’s a separation unto God. We are no longer…we no longer belong to ourselves. We no longer belong to the world and its system. We belong to Him and His kingdom. We’ve been set apart, taken out of all of that, all of this world and all that it stands for, and we belong to Him. He’s put His mark upon us. He’s sealed us with His spirit. He said, that one’s Mine.

Has God ever said that to you? That’s what He wants to do for every soul that He brings to Himself, where you know on the inside of your heart that He says, “You’re Mine. I have bought you with the blood of My son and you are Mine.” Has He said that to you? Praise God!

I know there’s many people here who can tell, who know what that’s like. I’m so thankful because boy…Carl, when I look in the mirror too, I see the same thing. I see someone that I would be glad to be rid on. He’s just needy. But oh, look at the Word of God and I see a Savior who’s taken all of that upon Himself. And He’s talking about this being made holy as a past, completed, solid thing that I can rest my hope upon…not any thing that I can find in myself. There’s nothing there, but I can find it in Him. All that I lack is in Jesus. Once for all. Praise God! I’ve been made holy.

“Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins….” Over and over he says the same thing. I sense that this…the writer here…we don’t know for sure if it was Paul or not. I don’t know. I don’t care. God wrote it. But you sense the burden of the writer to get them to see this. He keeps saying, once for all, once for all, once for all. Do you get it? Do you understand this, he’s saying to these people. Don’t you know that that could never do the job? This was what God was after. He’s done it. It’s once for all. It’s done! If you could ever see it, you can rest in what He did.

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